According to the Free Senior High School (FSHS) Coordinator of the Ministry, Mr William Darkwah, all qualified candidates who chose to pursue TVET at any government-approved Senior High School (SHS), Senior High Technical (SHTS) or any TVET institution would enjoy all the benefits of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) initiative.

Briefing the media in Accra on Friday, he urged all parents to ensure that their children/wards “who are interested in the TVET programme were encouraged to select TVET if they were to do self-placement”.

Again, he reminded parents to ensure that their children who chose TVET pursued it so they could receive all the benefits associated with the TVET sector.

Mr Darkwahsaid currently, 186TVET institutions fairly and strategically located across the country were ready to run the Free TVET system up to certificate II level.

He explained that all TVET providing institutions which used to be under 19 ministries had been realigned to the Ghana TVET Service under the Ministry of Education and had been included in this academic year’s Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) for the Junior High School graduates.

A total of 571,892 candidates wrote the 2021/2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), after which 555,353 candidates qualified to pursue further education at the second cycle level. Out of the number who qualified, 367,811 were automatically placed in their school of choice leaving only 187,542 to do self-placement.

The 187,542 are expected to follow the laid down process to do the self-placement within the shortest possible time before the system is shut down or closed.

“The huge investment made by the government since 2018 by the government attests to the importance the government attaches to the TVET sector,”the FSHS Coordinator said.

On July 5, 2018, the Government of Ghana signed a contract with P C Education Africa Ventures Ghana Limited – for “Upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana”.

This was followed by the official sod cutting for commencement of the project at the grounds of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in East Legon on December19, 2019 by his Excellency, the President of the Republic, Nana AddoDankwaAkufo-Addo.

As part of the infrastructural project, the Head Office of NVTI, 10 Regional Testing Offices, 35 institutions including OICG Accra centre, five informal apprenticeship offices and 35 institutions across the country have been upgraded and retooled.

Components of the infrastructural upgrade of the institutions include classroom blocks, ICT centres, administration blocks, workshops, male and female dormitories, Installation of workshop equipment, and curriculum development for trainers and tutors for NVTI institutions in CBT.